The warning bell rang signalling that the end of break was near and that second period was about to start. Baekhyun grabbed onto Suho and Kyungsoo and pulled them toward the hall, eager for what he knew was coming. The next stage in the competition was about to be revealed. Baekhyun squealed in excitement and was practically bouncing down the corridor, his two friends only marginally more calm than himself. Baekhyun pushed through the door into the hall and was forced to squeeze through gaps in the cluster of people occupying the hall, in order to get nearer to the front by the stage. When he reached a point about half way between the stage and the door he was satisfied that he was close enough and came to a stop. It was so sudden that Suho and Kyungsoo tumbled lightly into him, unable to fully stop themselves in time. Baekhyun turned, beaming to his friends, "Ya, I am so excited!" he squealed.

"We can tell," Kyungsoo laughed, poking his friend lightly in the stomach. "But I have to say that I am excited as well." he agreed, nodding in earnest. 
"I wonder what the next stage will be." Suho pondered, tilting his head to the right, as if he were a dog, waiting for a bone. "It could be anything really, I mean..." He was cut off as the screeching rattle of a microphone being held at an awkward angle and dropped to the stage filled the room. The head-teacher's muttered apologies could only just be heard over the wave of laughter that burst from the 50 students awaiting their instructions. 

"My apologies," he said, bowing slightly before he continued. A silent hush had come one the previously loud and boisterous room. "A congratulations is in order for all of you who stand here today" he continued, "There were two hundred contestants who auditioned and fifty of you stand before me, so well done to you." there was a loud whoop from the back, but it was cut short when the head-teacher sent a stern look towards the culprit. "So now, as I am sure all of you have been very excited about, I will reveal the next stage in this competition. But before I do, I would like you to know that this section of the competition will be judged by not only the school staff as it was for the auditions, but also by a representative of SMent. So be sure to show your best. Now to explain the next part of the competition to you, we have Lee Minhee, one of the SMent representatives." He stepped away from the microphone and started the round of clapping that followed, filling the room with loud vibrations. 

A woman who had been stood to the left of the stage walked up the steps and took he place behind the microphone. It was no wonder that Baekhyun had not noticed her until now, she was minuscule, she had to be under, or near to 5 foot. Her long blonde hair was styled in loose waves that framed her pixie shaped face perfectly, and she wore a navy blue suit that enhanced the professional look that she had. She had an air of someone who would be strict, but her face held an expression of the utmost kindness and beauty. 

"Yes, I am Lee Minhee from SMent, hello." she bowed and then continued, her voice soft and lilting. "So now, the competition, let's get right down to it. This next level will be testing your skills not only in singing. This is because, to be the best, you need to be more than good, you need to be great. This will test level your patience, you creativity, your teamwork and most importantly, your imagination and determination. You will have to, in pairs, compose and perform a song. For each pair there will be a theme for this song, this will test your ability to think on your feet and to conjure ideas about things, that perhaps, you have never even heard of. You will have 1week from today to compose and practice the song." 

Audible groans rang out through the hall at the limited time but Lee Minhee just smiled a knowing smile and continued. "Now I can see a few of you signalling to friends, and grabbing hands but I am sorry to inform you that later today your pairs will be randomly selected for you. I wish you all the best of luck, and hope to see some wonderful performances. I will be seeing the best of you again, to discuss the stage after this one, will it be you?" she ended her speech and bowed again before stepping away from the microphone to allow the head-teacher to finish off. 

"I want you all to be in classroom B26 fourth period so that we can organise pairing. That will be all, you are dismissed, make sure to go back to your normal lessons." The head-teacher swept from the stage and the students began shuffling out of the hall. Once out of the door Baekhyun had to say goodbye to Kyungsoo and Suho who were in a different class, but agreed to meet them and lunch to discuss it. Baekhyun bounded away from the two of them in a joyous mood. His hair flicked repeatedly into his eyes but he was too happy to bother ridding himself of the annoyance. His class was only a few doors down so he reached the room in a matter of seconds. He pushed the door open and bowed, apologising for missing some of the lesson. His teacher nodded, irritated at his tardiness, and gestured to his usual seat at the back. Baekhyun bowed again and slid into his seat, relaxing into the surprisingly comfortable wooden chair.

He couldn't have been happier with the base of the next level in the competition; he loved to compose songs and to write lyrics. However he did have some problems, he had only ever tried writing fun, happy lyrics, so if he got a soppy sad theme then he was screwed. Also the success or failure of this challenge entirely depended on who he got as his partner, he sighed heavily at all of the things that could go wrong. He was snapped out of his mental babble as the teacher called on him for an answer, luckily he knew it, but he decided he should probably concentrate more. Sighing again he grabbed a pen and began taking notes on the molecular structure of bio fuels and how the differed from regular fuels. 

Lunch was a lively debate about what themes they thought would come up. Suho was adamant that they would mostly be about love and soppy stuff; whereas Kyungsoo was sure that they would give them themes about regular everyday things and objects. Baekhyun sat and watched his two friends bickering, grinning at their likeness to an old married couple, deciding that it was best to stay out of this particular argument. As soon as the bell rang out through the hall the three boys got up from their table and rushed to B26, along with 47 other students.

In the classroom all of the tables and chairs had been pushed out of the way, all but one table at the far end of the room that still jutted out. This individual table held papers and pens and also a bowl very similar to the one that had been on the table on the day of the auditions. The bowl was orb shaped and made of frosted glass, slips of black and white paper could be seen vaguely through the semi-transparent surface. Someone cleared their throat loudly. Stood to the left of the desk was Lee Minhee, smiling broadly at the room as a whole. Silence fell over the group of teens as all attention went to the petite yet powerful woman before them.

"Right, all of you will now be paired up. After you have been paired off you will need to register your pair and you will then receive your theme. Then you will be allowed to spend the rest of today starting your preparations. However after today, with the exception of the performance day itself, you must go to all of your regular lessons and find other times to prepare your performances, be it lunch, break, after or before school." she reached down and her slender, creamy fingers wrapped around the frosted glass bowl, lifting it so that everyone in the room could see it. "As there are 50 of you there will of course be 25 pairs. The letters A-Y have been written in these slips of paper, both on white and on black paper. You will simply select a slip of paper with your eyes closed and your partner shall be the person who selected the opposite colour of your same letter. Does everyone understand? Yes? Good. Now everyone line up and you can start pairing off." she placed the glass bowl back onto the wooden table top as the babble of teenagers began merging into a single line. 

Baekhyun, Kyungsoo and Suho were fairly near the front; only five people were before them. They shuffled steadily closer to the table, practically shaking with both excitement and anxiety, they were about to get either really good, or really bad news. Kyungsoo reached the table first, and looking up to the ceiling, he plunged his hand into the sea of paper, grasping a slip he pulled it free from the others and stepped away. Suho followed. They had both gotten white slips of paper but Baekhyun hadn't seen their letters yet. Stepping up to the table he closed his eyes and slowly reached down into the bowl. His knuckles grazed the glass and he jolted his hand away, the glass was as cold as ice. Cautiously returning his brand to the bowl he pushed his hand through the mass of rough paper searching and grabbing. Finally his fingers came across a piece of paper that he wanted; it felt smoother than the others, soft and silky to touch. He pulled it from the bowl and opened his eyes to see the pitch, charcoal black of the paper in his hand. 

He moved away from the table to consult with Kyungsoo and Suho, who were now opening up their own folded slips of paper. They all held out their paper in a row so that they could all see their letters. Baekhyun had gotten a white letter X on a black background. Kyunsoo and Suho both had white backgrounds and black letters, but neither had the other X to match Baekhyun. They had the letters O and E. Held up in a line as they were, the boys' letters formed the word "EXO" 

From across the room Baekhyun heard someone call, "Ya, who has the black X?" his heart pounded and his breath caught in his throat. He would recognise that voice anywhere, smooth as dark chocolate and yet as rough as sand at the same time, so deep that it stirred somewhere in the pit of Baekhyun's stomach. He turned his head and his eyes met the charcoal, caramel flecked eyes that he knew so well. The eyes widened in realisation and the tall, muscular boy began to move through the crowd of people as Baekhyun just stood still. He was attempting to control his breathing and to calm his racing heart, but it was difficult when the cause of their erratic behaviour was making his way over to we're he stood.